Main menu

Search form

Submission

You are here

ALIA, NSLA and the ALCC are supportive of Standards Australia's move to a non-exclusive model for the distribution of Standards information in Australia. However, we argue that SA should go further to recognise the strong mandate to ensure public access to the Standards in the new licensing model.

The ALCC strongly supports the government’s stated goal to modernise Australia’s copyright system and ensure that it is efficient, effective, accountable and, most importantly, able to adapt to changes in economic conditions, technology, markets and costs of innovating. To achieve this, the ALCC recommends that Australia:

The ALCC welcomes the amendments proposed by the Copyright Amendment (Service Providers) Bill 2017 as an initial step in improving Australia’s safe harbour arrangements. They will provide significant benefits to Australia’s library and archive community, lower the risk involved in digital engagement projects, and enable our members to more confidently fulfill their role as important service providers for all Australians.

The ALCC provides comments on the exposure draft of the Copyright Regulations 2018. We applaud the new TPM exceptions for disability access, library use, and schools working within the statutory licence or s200AB, but petitioned for additional TPM exceptions for libraries working under s200AB and others using the fair dealing provision. We also suggest some minor changes to the notice requirements for libraries and archives.

The ALCC is very supportive of the proposed recommendations set out in the Productivity Commission’s draft report into Australia’s IP Framework. In particular, we support the Commission’s recommendations that:

The ADA and the ALCC strongly support the policy reforms proposed by the Copyright Amendment (Disability Access and Other Measures) Bill. We feel these are important changes that provide significant benefits for Australian consumers and businesses. They will particularly benefit the cultural, educational, disability and technology sectors.

The ALCC contends that ensuring a healthy public domain and the ability to access and make use of material should be a key goal, not just a side effect of copyright regulation. As such, libraries and archives and the role they play in facilitating public access to copyright material are an essential part of the copyright ecosystem.

Copyright is traditionally a civil matter. However, the scope of the property rights, protections and limitations are creatures of statute. The ADA and ALCC submit that the Act currently inappropriately inhibits free speech, shifts the burden of proof in one criminal (and a number of civil) offence(s) and contains unjustified offences of strict liability. We propose:

● Removal of some of the existing copyright exceptions (as previously identified by the ALRC), to be replaced with a fair use exception to copyright infringement

As our intellectual property laws are increasingly regulated by rules set in international agreements, the processes by which we negotiate, approve and enter into those agreements is of crucial importance. The move away from open, multilateral fora to secret trade-based treaties has added to the complexities of ensuring appropriate IP policies.

As such the ADA and ALCC were happy with the opportunity to submit to the Senate inquiry into the treaty making process. We made the following proposals to improve the treaty making process: